Jürgen Meisel, born in Heilbronn, Germany, in 1944. Ph.D. from the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University, Frankfurt am Main. Professor of Linguistics at the University of Hamburg.
Fellow (1 February 1997 – 30 June 1997)
The general topic of my work during the stay at NIAS was `Bilingual first language acquisition and naturalistic second language acquisition’. My aim is to arrive at insights concerning the underlying principles and mechanisms guiding monolingual (L1) and bilingual (2L1) first language development and second language acquisition (L2). As a member of the theme group “Bilingualism”, I was particularly concerned with contrasting 2L1 and L2.
During the time at NIAS I wrote several chapters of a book on “First and Second Language Acquisition: Parallels and Differences”, to be published by Cambridge University Press. I also wrote a paper “The acquisition of the syntax of negation in French and German: contrasting first and second language development” (submitted).
In addition, I attended several workshops at NIAS and at conferences at Dutch universities. I gave two lectures in theme group meetings, one at a workshop in Paris (Université de la Sorbonne Nouvelle), one in the Department of Linguistics at the University of Amsterdam, and one at the closing workshop of the theme group at NIAS.